The Quest: 4 Questions That Can Release the Potential of Your City

September 1, 2005, © Marilyn Hamilton BA CGA PhD, Editor www.integralcity.com

Canadian Institute of Planners: Frontiers in Planning and Design, July, 2005, Calgary, AB.
Panel Presentation: Integral Planning and Spiral Dynamics an Upcoming Model

Learn to love the questions themselves. Rumi

Summary
A city or community is a complex living system. We’ve found that a very simple, low cost, low
technology approach provides clear insight into how resources, taxes and grants can be best
invested to release the potential of the city.

The power of this approach comes from a little known diagnostic and predictive model called
Spiral Dynamics integral (SDi). SDi gives an insight into the way that people and communities
naturally develop and how development gets blocked and how it can be unblocked. Like a prism
that splits light, we don’t need to know how it works, to see the effect. We can still see the
spectrum of light split by the prism. (Fourman, 2005) In the same way, SDI shows the spectrum of
culture within communities within a city and how they can naturally move forward.

To understand a community, we ask four questions of the people who live in the community/city:
1. What are the Strengths of Your Community/City?
2. What Blocks Potential in your Community/City?
3. How Would You Improve Your Community/City?
4. How Would You Describe Your Community/City?

The answers to the four questions tell us the natural place to apply resources and energy to
further the city’s development.

By understanding the blocks, the nature of the strengths and the desires for improvement, we can
unblock the blocks, build on our strengths, realize our desires for improvement and continue to
learn about the city and how it can develop.

The Quest
Have you ever set out on a quest to unlock the potential of your city?

I used to think that we needed experts to tell us what and how to change the city to optimize the
quality of human life in the city. Indeed, whole professions of economic advisors, social
developers, health care and education forecasters and infrastructure and property developers have
arisen to offer expert services. They have collected vast arrays of qualitative and quantitative
data, developed enormous data bases, built infrastructure management technologies and created
sophisticated GIS mapping software. However, despite the fact that most of these services are
technologically advanced, they are frequently disconnected from each other and the people who
live the realities of everyday life in the city.

In the last eight years, I have been curious about how to build bridges between the wisdom of
citizens and the knowledge of experts. In studying the dynamics of human systems in communities
and more recently, cities, I have been taught by ordinary citizens that they are quite capable of
answering four simple questions that reveal the potential of their cities. I have gathered this
data in a number of ways through: surveys; wisdom circles; archive and ethnographic analysis;
focus groups; and recording free conversation.

The four simple questions are appreciative by design, and powerful by nature.

The Graces
The first question I like to ask leads me to the city’s “Graces”.

1. What are the Strengths of Your Community/City?

This question, gets people to focus on what they really like about their city – what is great
around here? Why did they move/stay here in the first place? Most people have wonderful, rich,
illustrative stories to tell in response to this question.
1. “ The streets are safe where I live.”
2. “This is a great place to raise kids.”
3. “ This city has built Olympic class sports facilities, so I’ve been able to train here.”
4. “ I don’t need to own a car, because the public transportation system is so good.”
5. “I have worked in the plant for 20 years, and have had fantastic career advancement as
Boeing expanded its business here.”
6. “This is a culturally diverse city, and I truly enjoy the ethnic mix. As an artist, I can
be part of a really vibrant arts community.”
7. “ This place is really “wired” into the rest of the world, so I can do business around
the world without leaving the comforts of my home town.”
8. “ This location is ideal for our institution to serve the world’s information
distribution needs and the expansion of cultural consciousness.”

On many occasions, community focus groups gather data related to this first question. However,
the community leaders and/or facilitators rarely understand how to see the unifying themes and/or
cross-connections that reveal the hidden patterns in the responses to this question.

This is where values mapping can help translate the “raw” stories into clusters on an unfolding
map of human “graces”. Multi-disciplinary science has taught us that as human systems have
evolved, eight major values systems have emerged, each more complex than the one preceding it.
For a truly vibrant city, each of the statements above represents a value system that must be
healthy, in order for the whole city to be healthy. The eight value systems are represented in
these themes:
1. Individual safety and survival
2. Bonding, family relationships, clan and tribal customs
3. Individual expressiveness, joy, personal power
4. Order, authority, rules, laws, bylaws, ordinances, infrastructure
5. Organization, efficiency, effectiveness, strategies, results
6. Community, diversity, acceptance of differences, equal rights
7. Whole systems thinking, ecological connections
8. Global worldviews, shared world emergence


The Curses
The second question I like to ask leads me to the city’s “Curses”.

2. What Blocks Potential in your Community/City?

When we live as residents in cities, we are often too blind to the dynamics and complexities of
our individual, every day lives to be aware of the subtle ways we affect the quality of life in
the city. Abbotsford, BC is the fastest growing city in Canada. Not surprisingly, most citizens,
grumble loudly about the gridlock that arises twice a day when parents chauffeur their children
to school. But they fail to link, that how they have voted in the last thirty years, has lead to
short term city/school-district land-use and transportation planning, that prevents access to
emergency services, on many streets, twice a day.

When we serve cities through Foundations, Care Giving Institutions, Not-for-Profits and NGO’s,
many times we are too discouraged by the incumbent power structures of the city, to adequately
voice the concerns of the marginalized who cannot integrate into city life. A cluster of small
cities north of Wichita, Kansas, has noticed the influx of Hispanic workers into their
traditionally rural areas, resulting in racism that is breaking down relationships and putting up
barriers between neighbors.

When we manage cities – from the perspective of City Hall, the School Board or the Health
Authority -- we are often too confounded by the demands of making decisions to satisfy multiple
stakeholders, to take the time to notice what is really great about our city. When the city of
Grapevine, Texas, faced massive development in neighboring, Dallas-Fort Worth airport fifteen
years ago, the loss of business from main street was a rupture to the retail core of Grapevine,
that drained the economic lifeblood out of city hall, city services, the school district and
health care facilities.

When we invest in cities, as developers, our interests in obtaining the highest possible return
from our land development, frequently makes us too preoccupied with the return on investment from
sticks and bricks, to notice that the social/cultural fabric of the city contributes as much or
more to future returns as property values. The city council of Carbondale, Colorado approved a
big box retail store development that promised a new sales tax base, despite the fact that it was
distinctly counter-cultural to the resident arts community and also replaced a breathtaking
mountain panorama as the city’s gateway.

Too blind –too discouraged – too confounded – too preoccupied. These curses and their resulting
deficiencies block the natural flow of a healthy city life. In our quest for city improvement,
how can we overcome these blocks?

The Wishes
The third question I like to ask leads me to the city’s “Wishes”.

3. How Would You Improve Your Community/City?

The answer to this question usually leads us to frame the change we need to unlock the potential
of our city. It tells us the answer to the question: Change from what to what?

Very often the stories citizens tell us about their “wishes”, build on the strength of the city’s
“Graces” and overcome its “Curses”. In fact, the same values mapping process, discussed in
“Graces” can be applied to the “Curses” and “Wishes” stories. Returning to the four stories,
from the previous section, Table 1 shows the corresponding “Wishes” (and their related values
system) that counteracted the “Curses” (and their related values system).

Table 1: Wishes Overcome Curses

Curse Values System	Curse	Wish Values Systems	Wish
1. Unsafe 5.Ineffec-tive	School time Gridlock & Unsafe Emergency Response corridors in Abbotsford	5. Effective Strategy	City Mayor & Staff review and improve the Official Community Plan
2. Tribal/ Clan customs block new citizens	Racism in Kansas	6. Community /Diversity   7. Whole Systems Thinking	Community Mental Health System create awareness of the value of healthy ethnic diversity
4. City Order & infrastruc-ture dying	Dying town of Grapevine	2. Town Customs 5. Change Strategy	City Manager revive respect for historical roots and implement history-based downtown revitalization strategy
5. Inappropriate compete-tive strategy	Big Box Development mismatches City Culture and Environment in Carbondale	6. Citizen Protest 7. Whole Systems Thinking	Citizens organize referendum and overturn Council Decision. City Manager set up Roadmap Committee to gather citizen input for future vision of city.

Mapping Graces, Curses, Wishes
One of the most powerful outcomes of using this values mapping process is that it creates a
common language to interpret graces, curses and wishes. Note, that in each case of the above
examples, the Wishes inject new energy into one or more of the City’s eight values systems to
overcome the blocks created by the “curse”.

In fact, the common language of these eight values systems, gives us the capacity to actually
graph the relationship between the city’s graces, curses and wishes. Figure 1 shows a comparison
between one city’s capacities (graces); stops (curses); and improves (wishes). (Note: the x axis
color labels correspond to the eight values systems discussed above.)

Figure 1: Graces, Curses, Wishes

 

 

The same kind of values mapping allows us to compare the views of different populations within
the same city. Figure 2 compares the views of Abbotsford’s capacities/graces from the perspective
of the general population and the Community Foundation Board members.

Figure 2: Comparing Graces – Views of Residents and Board

 

A final advantage to using this kind of values mapping allows us to compare any or all of the
Graces, Curses, or Strengths between cities. Figure 3 illustrates this with a comparison of five
cities’ Strengths (Graces) in Kansas.

Figure 3: Kansas Comparing City Graces


 

 

 

 

The Wisdoms
Finally, the fourth question I like to ask leads me to the city’s “Wisdoms”.

4. How Would You Describe Your Community/City?

The answers to this question disclose the city’s wisdoms about how various people view the city –
what is the nature of the city’s awareness about itself? The city’s wisdoms are actually
contained in: individual citizens; groups, organizations and collectives of all kinds; internally
and externally. The wisdoms can also be mapped simply, on a quadrant map like Figure 4.

Figure 4: City Wisdom Map

	Internal	External
Individual	Heart, mind, spirit	Body, traits, behaviors
Group	Belief systems, cultures	Infrastructure systems, workplaces, technologies

The city Wisdom Map, gives us the multiple perspectives of people whose lives and/or work is
defined by the qualities of city life in each quadrant. Interestingly, some aspect of each
person’s life is located in each quadrant; for example:
Upper Left: How I intend, think, love/hate, believe (often invisible to others)
Upper Right: How I behave, physically appear; (what is visible to others)
Lower Left: How my belief system influences me; eg. family, religion, culture
Lower Right: How my social systems influence me: eg. workplaces, buildings, technology

In addition we have people whose work or interests give them special expertise in each quadrant.
The examples we used in the second and third questions show us how.
Upper Left: City Residents/Parents
Upper Right: City Managers; School Board; Healthcare Specialists
Lower Left: Foundations, Not-for-Profit Experts
Lower Right: Developers

We can even combine the quadrant maps with the values maps, so that we can see the comparative
values of each grace/curse/wish in each quadrant. Figure 5 shows an example of how this could be
illustrated for the graces (the multi-colored petals) and curses (the grey background) of a city.


Figure 5: 4 Quadrant, Multi-Value City Map of Graces & Curses

 

 

 

 

Furthermore, we are able to utilize this framework to compare the actual qualitative values with
the quantitative resources we invest in each quadrant, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: City Qualitative Values Compared to Quantitative Tax Allocation

	Internal Values vs Taxes	External Values vs Taxes
Individual	16% vs <3%	13% vs 9%
Group	53% vs 12%	11% vs 76%

The Potential
Returning to our original quest: How do we unlock the potential of our city?

The answers to four simple questions define our quest.
1. What are the Strengths of Your Community/City?
2. What Blocks Potential in your Community/City?
3. How Would You Improve Your Community/City?
4. How Would You Describe Your Community/City?


When we translate the responses to these questions into a values-based framework and graph the
flow, we gain:
• the value of a common language that allows us to compare and contrast stories, responses,
and perspectives about Graces, Curses and Wishes
• the opportunity to compare answers between different groups of people (experts,
residents, ages, gender, roles, etc.)
• a highly useful view of the relationships between individuals and collectives and
cultures and infrastructures
• comparisons between quantitative investments of finances and qualitative and quantitative
resources
• a picture of the natural flow-state of the city – what are the city’s Graces that are its
natural strengths; what are the City’s Curses that block its potential; and what are the City’s
Wishes that will lead to improvement?

Unlocking the city’s potential, requires the development of a strategy to change from unbalanced
values systems and unbalanced wisdom quadrants, to a complete set of eight balanced and flowing
values systems and four balanced wisdom quadrants.

The answers to the four questions tell us the natural place to start our quest and the
destination we seek. The questions are the key that lets us unblock the curses, build on our
graces, realize our wishes and continuously learn from the wisdom of our quest to optimize our
city’s potential.

References
Beck, D. (2003), private discussion February
Beck, D.(2002), “The Color of Constellations: A Spiral Dynamics Perspective on Human Drama”,
Spiral Dynamics Conference, Boulder, CO, October
Beck, D. (2000) State of the World Forum, “Shaping Globalization: Convening the Community of
Stakeholders”, p. 6
Beck, D., Cowan, C. (1996), Spiral Dynamics, Blackwell Publishers, Malden, MA.
Canadian Policy Research Networks, Mendelsohn, Matthew, (2002) “Canada’s Social Contract:
Evidence from Public Opinion”, Discussion Paper No. P|01, Public Involvement Network, November
Canadian Policy Research Networks, Maxwell, Judith, (2001) “Indicators of Quality of Life in
Canada: A Citizens’ Prototype, Summary of Results of Public Dialogue Sessions and Prototype of National Indicators”, Quality of Life Indicators Project, April
Canadian Policy Research Networks, Maxwell, Judith, (2003), “Canadians’ Health Care Values BC Health Directional Plan, Expert Panel: Challenges, Choices to Ensure Access”, Presented on
February 4
Center for Ethical Leadership, (2002), www.ethicalleadership.org, Seattle
Cooke et al (2002), European Spiral Leadership Summit: Analysis of country comparisons: Hard copy and online survey data graphed by AL, www.onlinepeoplescan.com
Cooke, C. (2001), “The Hemsmesh Project”, unpublished report
Fourman, M. (2005), personal conversation, private correspondence
Northwest Environment Watch (2004), Cascadia Scorecard, Seattle
Eddy, B. (2003), Private Conversation and Notes, March 5
Global Values Network (2002), Global Values Monitor, Unpublished Document, Spiral Dynamics
Training, Vancouver
Hamilton, M. (1996), Campbell Community Survey, Unpublished Paper
Hamilton, M. (1999), “Berkana Community of Conversations: A Study of Leadership Skill Development and Leadership Organization Practices in a Self-Organizing Online Microworld”, doctoral thesis, www.globallearningconnections.com,
Hamilton, M. (2002), Emerging Organization, Unpublished Lecture Notes
Hamilton, M. (2003a), Maple Ridge Survey, Unpublished document
Hamilton, M. (2003b), “Integral Community: Lenses, Values and Indicators for Maple Leaf Meme Maps”, unpublished manuscript
Hamilton, M. (2003c), “Discovering Integral Capacities in the Global Village Through Values
Meta-Mapping”, unpublished manuscript
Hamilton, M. (2004), “Why Metamap the City of the Future?”, unpublished manuscript
Hargens, S. (2004), “Integral Ecology: The What, Who, and How of Environmental Phenomena, Version 4 3/14/04, unpublished manuscript, Integral Ecology, Integral Institute, Denver, Colorado
Hertzman, C., McLean S.A., Kohen, D.E., Dunn, J. Evans, T. (2002), “Early Development in
Vancouver: Report of the Community Asset Mapping Project (CAMP)”, August
Jacksonville, City of. (1993), Life in Jacksonville: Quality Indicators for Progress
Jacobs, J. (2000), The Nature of Economies, Vintage Books, New York
Miller, J.G. (1978), Living Systems, McGraw Hill, New York
Roemischer, J. (2002), “The Never-Ending Upward Quest: The Practical & Spiritual Wisdom of Spiral Dynamics”, What is Enlightenment?, Fall/Winter, Foxhollow, MA
Ruder, K., Sando, D. (2002), “Spiral Flower System Map of Community”, Center for Ethical
Leadership, www.cel.org
Stevenson, B., Hamilton, M. (2001), “How Does Complexity Inform Community; How Does Community Inform Complexity?”, Emergence, v.3.1
Time Magazine (1995), “A Nation Blessed, A Nation Stressed”, November 20
Tonkin, A., (1999 – 2003), “Global Values Monitor”, Online, www.globalvaluesnetwork.com
Wilber, K. (2001), Marriage of Sense & Soul, Random House, New York
Wilber, K. (2000a) , A Theory of Everything, Shambhala, Boston
Wilber, K. (1995), Sex Ecology and Spirituality, Shambhala, Boston
Wilber, K. (1996), A Brief History of Everything, Shambhala, Boston
Wight, I. (2002), “Place, Place Making and Planning”, ACSP, Baltimore
Wight, I. (2003), personal conversation
World Health Organization. (2004) “What is a Healthy City?”,
http://www.who.dk/healthy-cities/How2MakeCities/20020114_1, accessed August 14, 2004
 

Sense in the City Archives

Home